Beginner’s guide to Linux distros
Submitted on June 16th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Software and Linux
In a bit of a follow up to the recent media apps for GNU/Linux post, I wanted to give a quick rundown of some major distro’s. Even though a lot of people have a hardcore favorite, and swear everyone should use it, I tend to think the situation is more that there are different distro’s for different people. Hit the link below for more…..
Introduction and Disclaimer
First off are the major distros, then some derivatives. I will preface this with a disclaimer, because I’ve certainly seen flames before on this subject. These are general observations, meant to give users a better idea of the scope of various choices, not an endorcement or slam of any one. This will cover only a handful of distros, and not even the best. I hope to add more later. (edit: This has hit Slashdot, and I’ve had a lot of feedback, some helpful, some flames. Much less flaming that I expected. I only managed to get in a limited number of distro’s, I hope to add more later. I personally love MEPIS btw. In terms of the core of Slack being BSD based I’m referring to the init scripts. By saying core I hoped to make it more understandable for those that don’t know what init scripts are. And I’m absolutly wrong on how to say SuSE. I will make the change. Also fixed at least a lot of the its/it’s stuff, and the Debian trees -JWH)
There are two major trunks for most Linux distros. There are plenty of ground up distros, but most are derived either from RedHat using RPMs (RPM stands for RedHat Package Manager) or Debian using dpkg files. This file formats are used to install software on your computer. Currently, the biggest distros not derived from RedHat or Debian are Slackware and Gentoo which also have their own package management systems with various advantages/disadvantages.
And on to the distros…
RedHat/Fedora- Often cited as the industry leader, it certainly has a strong foothold in the corporate world due to being a major company with resources to support and market their OS. For this reason, the biggest plus to RedHat or Fedora is that there is a multitude of packages and support for it. It installs a desktop with most any tool that an average user would need, and if it doesn’t have it, both YUM and Apt-get (or just downloading RPM’s) allow an easy way to add software. These days, RedHat is no longer free-as-in-beer by itself, but as the community driven Fedora. Fedora has regular and quick updates, and is the testing ground for RedHat. In recent weeks, it has been revealed that RedHat has plans to even further spin off Fedora as its own organization like the Mozilla Organization. One downside to RedHat/Fedora is the size. It isn’t a small download to get a fully featured desktop installed, and the OS will require a stronger system than some other distro’s. It can be installed off 1 CD as a slimmer non-graphical system, and one strong point for the distro is they do still include many CLI tools that newer desktop centric distros exclude for X-based utilities. Because of its popularity and emphasis on ease-of-use, one can expect a harsh reaction from the more hardcore crowd.
SUSE- The “U” is hard and the “E” is soft. Almost like the word sue with an S on the end. SUSE is the other big commercial distro. (I wasn’t quite right on this, it’s “soo-suh”) It was when it was still its own company in Germany, and now even bigger since being purchaced by Novell. Up until the latest versions, SUSE was like the RedHat side of RedHat/Fedora, being the more tested commercial product. At this point, it is the leading edge consumer edition, with Novell Linux Desktop as the corporate product. At one point SUSE, like Mandrake, was a repackage of RedHat. (I’m wrong on this too. SuSE has its roots in Slackware) It is still RPM based, and at this point is a very different beast. SUSE’s biggest strength is the graphical tools available. Almost all distro’s are now VERY easy to install and setup basic things. But with most if you want to do more power-user configuration, you have to go back to editing text files. With YAST SUSE has the most thorough graphical tools to take care of almost every aspect of the system. SUSE is arguably the most polished of the current distros. If I have a very savvy Windows user express intrest in GNU/Linux, I point them to SUSE. Unfortunatly, SUSE isn’t as free-as-in-beer as most other distros. A few months after a new release they will open up an FTP install that is still a bit difficult and time consuming. The best way to use SUSE is to buy the fairly expensive Professional boxed edition, which runs close to $100. I also find it very hard to work with from the command line. YAST is the excellent graphical tool that allows so much poweruser configuration, and even has a non-X curses based interface, but to make everything work so well, the graphical files aren’t as transparent or documented. Also, third party well-packaged software is not as available as for RedHat/Fedora. In addition, SUSE is much more likely than RedHat to ship with non-free commercial software. Some people want to have a “pure” system that is totally open-source from top to bottom. This of course is a personal choice, and certainly something to consider when choosing a distro.
Mandriva- The distro formally known as Mandrake. Mandrake recently purchaced the Connectiva distro and became Mandriva. This is admittedly the distro that I have used the least recently. When I first started using Linux (Redhat 5.x days) Mandrake was the first that seemed to easily install for me with everything working. I got a copy of Mandrake 6.0 as the cover off the first issue of Maximum Linux (RIP) and loved it. It started out as a more user friendly repackage of RedHat. Today, like SUSE, it is still RPM based, but is totally different from RedHat. Mandriva has an excellent installer, and was one of the first totally X-based point and click deals. Now with Lycoris (just purchased by Mandriva), Xandros, Linspire, and a number of others, Mandriva no longer is known as the most dumbed down distro, but still is very good for people new to GNU/Linux. The company almost went under a few years ago, but has since rebounded, and with the recent aquisitions of Connectiva and Lycoris, seems to be up to interesting things. The plus to Mandrake is that it is very polished and easy. It lacks the power-user tools of SUSE, but provides a better experience for those that have less general computer knowledge. Of the really big name distros, it would probably be my reccomendation for someone that has never done a Windows install before, and wants to try Linux. The downsides are similar to SUSE. Low level stuff is a bit less transparent and easy to hack. There is less easy to find and install software available, although I have found it better than SUSE.
Debian- Debian was created by Ian Murdock, and the name is derived from his and his wife’s names (DEBorah and IAN). Debian is different from the above distros in that there is no company behind it. It is totally done by the community that surrounds it. The aim of Debian is not to be the most user-friendly distro, but has a great focus on usability. Debian operates with 3 major trees, stable, testing, and unstable, and the bleeding edge experimental tree. Stable is meant for mission critical applications, and contains only software that has gone through rigourous testing. testing is aimed more for the desktop user, with more up-to-date packages, but most would agree that it is hardly unstable. Unstable takes it a step further with more bleeding edge packages, and experimental isn’t really meant as much for use as it is a testing ground. The really monumental thing about Debian is the package mangement system. Dpkg is very similar to RPM in allowing pre-built packages to be installed, but has an online system called Apt-get. Apt-get allows the user to simply type “apt-get install package_name” and it handles pulling not only the package requested, but any necessary dependencies, and helping configure the install. Debian has a HUGE archive of packages, which means a Debian user very rarely would need to acutally track down a package and its dependencies manually. What Debian lacks is the ease of use in many other distros. The latest stable release has a new installer which makes things much easier, but the distro does not include proprietary graphical utilities for system setup the way some commercial distro’s do. Currently, GNOME and KDE provide utilities that take care of much of this, but most of them are recent developments.
Ubuntu- A brand new player in the Linux game, even a few months ago this would have been listed with the not-so-major derivatives, but at this point so many people are using Ubuntu, it really fits in with the major players. In simple terms Ubuntu is a more user friendly Debian, without being too dumbed down. Most serious GNU/Linux fans shun other user-friendly Debian derivatives such as Lycoris, Xandros, and Linspire, but in recent months many of them have switched to Ubuntu. Ubuntu aims to fix alot of current problems with Linux distros. Mark Shuttleworth is a very smart/lucky entrepeneur that managed to make a lot of money, and has since done some very interesting science-related things. He is famous for buying a ride on a Russian space flight, and became the first African person to go into space. More recently he made a huge investment in creating a company called Canonical Software, which created the Ubuntu distro. Ubuntu has releases based off the Gnome schedule (every 6 months) and ships as a very usable single CD. It still is not as user friendly as some of the bigger distros in that it does not have an X-based mouse driven installer, and lacks proprietary tools; however, it is still fairly easy to install. It does do an excellent job of using the GNOME-built in tools mentioned above. The upside is a single CD to download (or have shipped to you for free) to get a very well featured, very user friendly desktop with awesome community support. It didn’t even exist (publicly) until October of 2004, and is already one of the very most popular distros. Almost everyone I know that runs Linux now uses it, and it currently tops the distrowatch list of most popular distros. It still is not a great recommendation to someone who has less computer experience. Many people are certainly turned away by the non-graphical installer. The installer also doesn’t allow for a custom install, the software that is present is what you get. And by being based off of a single disc, it doesn’t have anywhere near as much software as you will find with many other distros. The good news for that is it has a fairly extensive apt-get repository managed by Canonical, and access to the entire Debian library. For those that prefer KDE, you can install it via apt-get with Ubuntu, or you can also check out Kubuntu, which is Ubuntu with KDE out of the box.
Xandros, Lycoris, and Linspire- I am grouping these together because they have a lot in common. All three are commercial, made to be as user friendly as possible, based off Debian, KDE-centric and not free-as-in-beer. Lycoris will probably soon become very different, or even non-existant in its current form, since it was just aquired by Mandriva. Each will provide a great user experience for newcomers to GNU/Linux, but feel confining to those experienced with FOSS. They certainly are not designed for the user to hack around in /etc.
Major distro’s not based off Debian or RedHat
Slackware- The oldest existing distro. Slackware is largely a one-man project, done by Pat Volkerding. The beauty of Slack is in its simplicity. The core of the OS is based off of BSD, whereas Debian and RedHat are based off of AT&T UNIX. It is a bit more simple but less powerful to hack around the init scripts and change the real guts of the OS. Also, even with GNOME and KDE, Slackware is still only 2 CDs. It runs very fast, even on older machines, and because it is more simple, it is harder to break. On the other side Slackware is not very user friendly at all. You don’t build the system from the ground up like Gentoo, but you really have to know not only about computers, but a bit about Linux to really get the system running. Linux as a whole is actually getting much more user friendly (HAL and the already mentioned GNOME and KDE tools) but Slackware doesn’t add much extra. A point I very rarely see mentioned is that Slack actually does have some curses-based utilities to help setup parts of the system, so when people claim that Slack doesn’t have any proprietary setup tools, they are quite wrong. The other issue with Slack is that it is a one man show, and lately Pat has encountered some health problems that have limited his ability to work on the distro. In addition, although I haven’t seen anyone else admit it, Ubuntu has definatly picked up many former Slack users. If you do decide to use Slack and like GNOME, check out Dropline. It is a great release of GNOME for Slackware that adds a lot of usabiltiy and polish to the platform. There are many live CD distros based off Slackware including Slax and gNOX.
Gentoo- Like Ubuntu, Gentoo came out of nowhere and took the Linux world by storm. Gentoo is drastically different from the other mentioned distros in that it is source based. This means that with a system very similar to apt-get it allows a user to enter a command, pull the packages and dependencies needed, and install software, but instead of pulling prebuilt binaries, Gentoo pulls the source code and compiles everything. This means Gentoo has a major learning curve compared to other distros, but it makes up for this with superb documentation. The real bonus is that the user becomes VERY familiar with the operating system and how it is put together. Many GNU/Linux enthusiats may not use Gentoo anymore, but strongly recommend it as a learning experience for new users. On the other hand, it certainly provides a very fast, stable, and usable system. The package archives aren’t nearly as thorough as that of Debian, but certainly better than any other. The other downside is the time involved to use the system. To get a fully compiled system from scratch installed can take days, and when you need to do any major upgrading, expect your system to be chugging on code for hours.
Now for some minor distros…..
Knoppix- The first major live CD, which means it runs entirely off a CD. It is a great way for a new user to try GNU/Linux without installing anything to the hard drive. It is based off Debian and can still be installed and used as a Debian system. Many other distros have arisen based on Knoppix targetting different markets and audiences.
Blag- An often overlooked distro, Blag provides a single CD Fedora based distro with a concentration on the media codecs often left out of major distros.
Arch- Some consider this a non-source based Gentoo. It also shares a lot with Slackware. Arch is a very transparent and simple distro like Slack, but is based around an excellent package manager called Pacman. The distro requires a bit more knowlegde of the system than any of the others besides Gentoo to install, and actually sets up less in terms of sound or X for the user than Slack or Gentoo. Also a great way to learn the guts of GNU/Linux, and is probably the fastest OS I have used. Not good for really old systems though because the packages are created for i686 and above (Pentium 2 and Athlon and above)
Some good resources for Linux users
- Distrowatch is probably the best source to find other distros. It has a huge collection of distro’s that it publishes updates on, and has a page for each one with a short description and links to further information.
- Another resource to check out is Linuxiso.org. It has links to mirrors for many distros, and short descriptions of many.
- If you need documentation on how to do something, the best place to check out is The Linux Documentation Project. You can learn to do almost anything there.
Final words
Finally, a note about my personal experience. As mentioned above, I started using Linux around in the RedHat 5.x days. RedHat was my very favorite distro through 7.3. When 8 came out it was much bigger, and was the first to lack MP3 support out of the box. This was also when almost all distros began to become much easier to install and use. Martin and I have both spent a great deal of time trying different distros. For a period of about 2 years I was a self described distro-whore, and I would guess that for at least a year of that period, I averaged more than one distro install a week. It was no suprise when my poor laptop CD-ROM drive died. Nevertheless, during that period I kept falling back mainly on Slackware. For me Slackware with Dropline was the ultimate comprimise in simplicity and usability. I also would go back to RedHat/Fedora a lot. Arch was great but too much work since I kept replacing it after I had it working right. Currently I keep my server running with TaoLinux a free-as-in-beer RedHat Enterprise Linux repackage, and for the most part use Ubuntu on the desktop. I’m not reccomending Tao or Ubuntu, but they seem to work best for my uses. I hope this guide can help you pick which one best fits you.
Note from Martin: I started using Linux with RedHat 9, which saved my computer when Windows would no longer boot. The three years that I spent using Linux distros exclusively were a great learning experience, and something I’d recommend everyone to try out.
June 16th, 2005 at 9:28 pm
nice review. I do not have time to check out new distros (nowadays they seem to pop up so often) so this article is quite useful
June 18th, 2005 at 7:46 pm
You neglected to mention MEPIS. Another live CD that is friendly for new users!
http://www.mepis.org
Shame on the author! Shame!
June 18th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
June 18th, 2005 at 7:55 pm
LOL you’re right we did forget MEPIS…maybe we’ll cover it in a review of various Live-CD distros sometime in the near future.
June 18th, 2005 at 7:56 pm
your hd dident die from your one distro a week treatment? Lol
June 18th, 2005 at 7:57 pm
Umm…………..PCLinuxOS?
Best. Distro. Ever!
June 18th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
I think you got the Debian’s testing vs unstable mixed up… unstable is bleeding edge, testing is newer stuff that will become the next “stable”…
June 18th, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Ok, minor correction: None of the Linux distributions are based on BSD or AT&T UNIX. Slackware resembles the filesystem layout of the BSD systems, and the others tend to resemble the filesystem layout of System V, from AT&T.
But they’re not really descendants. Just filesystem hierarchy layout.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
You mixed up the Debian trees: stable is for production issues, testing for the “mostly up-to-date desktop” and unstable.
I used to mix them up myself. I’d suggest correcting your article rapidly and no one will notice.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:07 pm
Oh, and as you mentioned, the init scripts.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
I’ve worked for SuSE in the past. Your pronunciation is incorrect. Phonetically: Soo sah
Or (Sue-Suh – as in the marching band conductor John Philip). The one I prefer.
Just some food for thought. Good read, otherwise.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
Two questions:
1) If this is for newer users to figure out which distro to pick, why throw around terms (like HAL) which probably mean nothing to them?
2) Why do you mention apt-get and ignore Mandriva’s urpmi tool and massive repositories of contributed software, including media codecs via PLF? This seems to me like the best thing about Mandriva.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:13 pm
Slackware is an excellent disto to learn about Linux.
I started out with slackware in 1994 and switched to
debian in 1996.
I like debian’s huge repositories.
I like debian’s ease of maintenance.
Maintaining debian with the apt frontend “synaptic” is a breeze.
Debian has had a reputation for being hard to install but the latest installer is fairly easy.
The packages just work.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:17 pm
You have some messed up html around: ‘GNOME, check out Slax and gNOX.’
June 18th, 2005 at 8:27 pm
No distribution overview is complete without a mention of GoboLinux.
A truly alternative distro. AFAIK, the only one that uses a completely modular directory tree. Package management bliss.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
What about MEPIS? Personally, MEPIS has seemed to be more compatible than Knoppix. MEPIS pretty much offers all the programs the average user would need, including the OpenOffice package, The Gimp, Several Browsers, Including FireFox, and many, many more programs, all crammed in to one Live CD. I really like it, and it has saved me when I’ve screwed up royally, and helped me fix my problem.
Also, for “Computer Security” people ;), I reccomend Auditor Linux. It is based off Knoppix, but instead of focusing on the normal tools an average user would need, it scraps programs like OpenOffice, and puts in pretty much any security application you could think of. It includes a simple text editor, and Firefox, but it’s centred on Security tools. The only gripe I have with it is it still needs to be more compatible with different wireless cards, as it didn’t even find my centrino card through the wizard, and it requires alot of playing around to get the wireles s card working. But if you are working with Security tools, then I guess your used to that
June 18th, 2005 at 8:35 pm
your description of debian is slightly incorrect:
the ‘unstable’ not the ‘testing’ directory contains bleeding edge packages.
only the packages that have undergone some degree of testing in unstable is accepted into ‘testing’ directory. pls. see the following debian faq entry:
http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-testing
June 18th, 2005 at 8:44 pm
That’s a good point of reference that I will definitely re-check periodically.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:44 pm
1) Slackware uses a bsd init ( vs Sys. V init on majority of other linuxes ) and in this respect ressemble the Unix/BSD’s familly.
2) I suspect the author to have never actually runned debian. Correct ?
June 18th, 2005 at 8:45 pm
Good article.
Slackware was actually the learning experience for me. I just tried to install the madwifi-drivers for my wireless card and it forced me to learn a ton about Linux.
After running Slackware I moved on to Gentoo and have never looked back. I always do a Stage 1 install of Gentoo on every computer I can get my hands on and it works great (plenty fast too).
Just wanted to point out a few things about Gentoo though. They’re nothing you were wrong about, just some stuff I would like to add.
1. You can use binaries instead of in Gentoo. It’s just a simple argument after emerge (the Gentoo equivalent to apt-get/yum).
2. Gentoo can run on older systems (like i386s or i486s or i586s). Just a simple number switch in a config file.
3. A lot of the documentation for Gentoo is because of the community. Gentoo-wiki.com and Gentoo-portage.com are great resources and I always turn to the former if I’m installing something new (for example, I just installed splashutils with the guide). Also, 9 times out of 10, if it isn’t in the Wiki I can find it on the forums or through Google.
Overall, great article. Not enough of these distro pros-and-cons articles are done. Those that are aren’t done this well and without so little bias. Nice job.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
I use Cent-OS for a server, decent, and Ubuntu is VERY pretty from the start, I’ve given it to someone for an old cpu. I’m gonna switch back to OpenBSD for the server though, just ’cause.
June 18th, 2005 at 8:56 pm
I believe the comment about SUSE is incorrect - SUSE was actually based on Slackware at the beginning and was not based on Red Hat: http://lwn.net/1998/0205/suse.html
June 18th, 2005 at 9:02 pm
In response to Martin (and anyone else who’s interested):
There’s a great categorized list of live-CDs at http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php
June 18th, 2005 at 9:03 pm
You can get Linux torrents here is you prefer BitTorrent for downloading.
June 18th, 2005 at 9:06 pm
A good article. There are always bits one doesn’t agree with in this kind of thing, but its a decent overview. Maybe the Slackware section is the weakest. In terms of ones you don’t mention, I like Vector very much, and you could have mentioned a couple of the other small distros suitable for old hardware - DSL is very small and very fast.
June 18th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
Slackware rules. Slapt-get roxxors. Dont forget to mention that Slack is KDE-centric. No more GNOME to the slackware-current.
June 18th, 2005 at 9:12 pm
[…] « School’s Out. Beginner’s guide to Linux distros Beginner’s guide to Linux distros This entry was posted […]
June 18th, 2005 at 9:13 pm
you should mention Source Mage (sourcemage.org)
It’s based off of sorcerer, but is a complete rewrite,
feature-competetive with gentoo, and written in bash (no python).
Thanks.
June 18th, 2005 at 9:14 pm
give dropline on slack a try and love gnome forever
June 18th, 2005 at 9:15 pm
paul = sanitarium (for those in the know)
June 18th, 2005 at 9:19 pm
Yes, nice article, but I really wish people would stop putting apostrophes where they don’t belong. It makes it so hard to read. If you don’t know how to use them, don’t try to use them. “It’s” is short for “it is”. Not very hard to remember, but a lot of people seem not to have learnt this..
June 18th, 2005 at 9:21 pm
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June 18th, 2005 at 9:22 pm
I started using Linux about a year and a half ago. I ‘ve been using Debian Unstable for the whole time. Recently I’ve been frustrated when I go to install a package and its not in the repositories, and then I check packages.gentoo.org and see that they have it in their repositories. Also, package versions tend to be older than the ones in Gentoo. As a result, I am considering switching to Gentoo, even though I don’t want to have to compile everything. In your description of Gentoo you say that it has more packages, at least in my experiences I have found this to be untrue, but maybe I just happen to use more of the packages that are popular with Gentoo users.
June 18th, 2005 at 9:23 pm
Another vote for SimplyMEPIS. I have it running on what I call my “garbage” computer that was sitting by a dumpster. Some repair, some stuff lying around, and it feeds the living room stereo stream and acts as an ad hoc web portal for the room.
Ubuntu declined to touch the hardware of that machine and kicked out of the install.
June 18th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
Thanks for the reviews! I recently installed gentoo mainly for the amd 64 support and it’s quite good and I’d recommend it, though I think i’m ready to add debian to this box just for the various packages. Lots of stuff is still masked in gentoo for 64 bit support, maybe it’s different in debian.
June 18th, 2005 at 10:04 pm
Not a bad article. However, one correction. You sat that Gentoo’s “package archives aren’t nearly as thorough as that of Debian”. Now, I run both Gentoo and Debian (on different machines). Gentoo has ~9600 packages; Debian testing has ~15600.
HOWEVER, this doesn’t mean Debian supports more different software. It simply means Debian’s packages are smaller. For example, Debian will typically have a bunch packages (’libfoo4′, ‘libfoo5′, ‘libfoo5-dev’, ‘foo5-client’, ‘foo5-data’, etc) for a single Gentoo package (’app-wombat/foo’).
In fact, in my experience, Gentoo’s package repository is richer (and more up-to-date) than Debian’s. Debian, for instance, has almost no games…
June 18th, 2005 at 10:04 pm
Free as in fart
June 18th, 2005 at 10:05 pm
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June 18th, 2005 at 10:40 pm
I wrote to SuSe/Novell a few months ago in order to settle the pronounciation controversy between a couple friends and myself. The reply was that it’s actually pronounced “zoo-suh”.
June 18th, 2005 at 10:43 pm
Well written and quit fair to all the distros. Good description of Arch (my favorite distro), especially the points about it in comparison to Gentoo.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
Thank you for the article, however like much of linx I see this huge variety of similar things and I still have no idea what is substantially different about any of them.
In the end I want to use my computer to get “stuff” done. Do these distros end up installing different tools or are they all identical? Is one distro more suited to software development tasks? Is one more suited to just running a web server?
Which distors require me to go an download, install, and then configure tools I think of as useful (such as the afore mentioned lack of mp3 support). Do any of these distros include:
- a jvm
- an mp3 player
- a video player with the popular codecs (divx, wmv, quicktime, real)
- gcc, g++, gdb, ddd, imake, make, autoconf, ant, etc.
- gimp, cinepaint, blender
- firefox, thunderbird
- gnome/kde
Obviously I can download, install, (install their dependencies) and configure all of these myself, but I want to use my computer, not set the damn thing up.
This humorous article about too many choices in linux makes the point better than I do:
http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/linuxbeat3.htm
“Which would my grandmother like better, Lilo or Grub? Personally I think Lilo is more straight-forward, but Grub is easier to configure. ”
Sums up the whole linux community.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
Novell Desktop 9 is slow to boot and rather slugish in general but way faster than Fedora Core 3. ND9 is the only distribution that actually installed my motherboard built-in audio crystal sound driver. I like ND9 much better than Fedora Core 3. My favorite right now is Conectiva 10 but have to run alsaconf to install the built-in audio and also download and install Firefox. I’m thinking about trying out Slax.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:08 pm
I’m glad to see you pointed out that Gentoo maintains an excellent collection of documentation. While it may not be the easist distro to install, the user forums and irc support channels for Gentoo are second to none, too. It is also possible to perform a binary install of Gentoo (other than the kernel) and only compile when performing upgrades; so, while it may take some users days to get a working system, you can also get a working system in an hour or so, too: Stage 3 install using the extra Package CD.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
although im mainly a mac user i have a pc aswell and cant stand windows. after fully reading the article and already knowing how good linux could be what would be the best distro thats user friendly i guess considering i would be a noob.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:18 pm
re: Brian Leair 06.18.05 @ 11:00 pm
what is substantially different about any of them
Difference include ease of installation (easy for Redhat and Slackware, hard for Debian, near damn impossible for Gentoo); ease of upgrades (trivial on Debian and Gentoo, very hard on Slackware and Redhat); ease of installing new software (trivial on Debian and Gentoo, OK on Redhat, hard on Slackware); amount of GUI vs. command-line (Redhat is more GUI, Gentoo and Slackware are more command-line); ease of creating init scripts for custom services (trivial on Gentoo, easy on Slackware, hard on Debian, near damn impossible on Redhat); how well integrated the GUI is into the system (very well-integrated on Redhat, OK on Debian, not at all on Gentoo); gaming perfomance (bad on Fedora, OK on SuSE, good on Gentoo); support for Java (good on Gentoo, bad on Debian); support for commercial software like Oracle (good on Redhat, OK on Debian, bad on Gentoo); support for mp3’s, divx/xvid, deCSS etc (good on Gentoo, bad on Debian, very bad on Fedora); etc.
Basically, the distros are substantially different.
Which distors require me to go an download, install, and then configure tools I think of as useful (such as the afore mentioned lack of mp3 support). Do any of these distros include:
- a jvm
- an mp3 player
- a video player with the popular codecs (divx, wmv, quicktime, real)
- gcc, g++, gdb, ddd, imake, make, autoconf, ant, etc.
- gimp, cinepaint, blender
- firefox, thunderbird
- gnome/kde
ABSOLUTELY EVERY distro includes gcc/g++ etc, gimp, firefox, thunderbird, and at least one of {Gnome, KDE}. Blender and cinepaint are also very widely supported. With media players and java, however, the picture gets a bit more complicated.
Gentoo supports everything you listed out of the box — but you will need to wait a day or two for it to compile. Debian doesn’t make watching divx and dvd’s very easy, but you can figure it out OK. Also, Debian’s java support is atrocious. Fedora doesn’t come with ANY mp3 support, but there are lots of guides for how to get around that. SuSE may be an OK choice.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:27 pm
Bleeding edge, visually most appealing, apt-get/synaptic rpm based, most comprehensive plug-in support, live-cd, easy hard drive install….
… Look no further than PCLinuxOS
June 18th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
The conception that Debian unstable means that the resulting system might be unstable is incorrect. The label applies to the packaging system. It means that (as opposed to a stable package system) changes can happen frequently and that may cause problems from time to time.
Stable on the other hand receives only security upgrades, usually back ported to the version of the software already in the package system. That means that when program or library is upgraded you don’t need to worry as much as you would if you had to get the latest version, with any other changes made to it, to patch security issues.
Testing should not be used by any one that does not understand what it is there for. It exists to test packages and ensure that the whole of the package system interacts well together. It doesn’t receive the security updates of stable, and packages filter in too slowly to get the latest versions with their security fixes as in unstable.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
You’re nuts, mate. Slackware is as flexible a distro as you can get without building it yourself or becoming a lame gent00bie. And it’s sure as hell a lot easier to “hack around” with the “real guts” of it than it is to even unbloat most of those other distros. Not to mention that you won’t be having that crap the gnome team tries to pass off as a desktop wasting space on your installation discs anymore.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:34 pm
Thank you, I just switched to Fedora Core 4 and I loving this new Linux World.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:37 pm
I have my own overview: all Linux distros are pitiful wastes of time other than specialized distros (knoppix, openwrt), SuSE, and Debian.
-thankyou
P.S.
If you want speed on a desktop pleace avoid gentoo, and go straight with suse. At least they actually engineer components of the os and kernel rather than providing another usesless package manager.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:41 pm
NLD is a red-headed stepchild in the linux world. It is not really SuSe, but not really it’s own distribution either. The main distributions I’ve messed with are Slackware, Debian, Gentoo, NLD, and SuSe, in pretty much that order…of those, I probably like NLD the lease, and SuSe is a close second. My biggest gripe with these? Novell. The support is horrible, as is the documentation and overall helpfulness if you want to do something you’re not supposed to do. If you want something that is not in YasT (which is a lot, doesn’t even come with links or lynx), then get ready for some pain. On top of this, NLD is super slow…win2k boots faster than this slug. What’s the point then? I don’t know…it’s slow as a pig and half as intelligent. I don’t trust a Linux distro that takes the control away from me…I’ll stick with slack and gentoo at home.
June 18th, 2005 at 11:41 pm
I came here to put in a comment: pointing out Mepis. But there are quite a few of them already here, so i wont bother!
June 19th, 2005 at 12:19 am
[…] aquo; Random links of the hour Linux distros TipMonkies posted a “beginner’s gude to Linux distros. Worthwhile reading, although it appears that t […]
June 19th, 2005 at 12:25 am
Tried em all stuck with Kanotix which has Knoppix detection with all the Debian Goodness (Pure Debian unstable) . Look in /usr/bin for the scripts to easily add certain extras like Mplayer, Codecs, Nvidia, or other drivers. Kanotix is a live CD so you can test it on your hardware before you install.
June 19th, 2005 at 12:25 am
I support PClinux as one of the most user friendly and easy to use distros and has a great LiveCD, I tried Ubuntu as well. I am a noob.
Ubuntu is still on my computer because when I tried to update PClinux my OS would freeze and I am too lazy to fix it so I went back to Ubuntu. But as soon as the next PClinux comes out I plan to switch back.
June 19th, 2005 at 12:30 am
Is Lycoris a Debian based distribution? I think no; it’s a RPM based distribution, derived from OpenLinux by Caldera => “SCO”… Ciao
June 19th, 2005 at 12:41 am
Knoppix was not the first live CD.
The first Live CD was Yggdrasil .. in 1994.
June 19th, 2005 at 12:54 am
You neglected small distros. Linux offers a HUGE advantage to those with old PCs or looking for a fast OS. i.e. Puppy, Feather, DSL etc. It’s where Linux really shines…custom distros to suit a niche market.
June 19th, 2005 at 12:56 am
Don’t forget Fervent’s Studio To Go!
http://ferventsoftware.com/
A Linux distro designed speicfically for audio production.
June 19th, 2005 at 1:23 am
No one said Knoppix was the first live CD. The article said it was the first major live CD. Very good article. I wish it were better proofread, though. Things are not “more simple”; they’re simpler.
Endorsement, not endorcement.
June 19th, 2005 at 1:54 am
Heres Another good place to get
June 19th, 2005 at 1:55 am
Heres Another good place to get Linux Torrents
June 19th, 2005 at 1:57 am
Congradutions on getting Slashdotted. I bet ya didn’t think that would happen.
June 19th, 2005 at 2:15 am
DAMN YOU FORGOT HTTP://LIVECD.GNUSTEP.ORG/
June 19th, 2005 at 2:20 am
By now, SUSE doesnt over FTP install only after an few monthm but also has ISOs on its server. look here:http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/downloads/ftp/eval.html
I know that its called evaluation version and I admit that i didnt test it yet.
June 19th, 2005 at 2:32 am
[…] « Return of the geek Good overview of Linux Distros Right here (via slashdot so it may be slow) That saves me some bother explaining the differences w […]
June 19th, 2005 at 2:59 am
Yeah, like someone already said above, you’ve mixed Debian Unstable and Testing in your article. Fix it, please. Unstable is bleeding edge while testing is something between unstable and stable.
June 19th, 2005 at 3:22 am
Quote: “I think you got the Debian’s testing vs unstable mixed up… unstable is bleeding edge, testing is newer stuff that will become the next “stableâ€Â?…”
Wrong. Stable is stable - for those pedantic about stability, or intending to use Debian as a server. Testing is more up-to-date packages than stable, but not necessarily totally stable. By stable, it’s not just the package itself, but how it interacts with other packages. And remember, this has to spread against all the different arches that Debian has (much, much, much more than ANY other distribution). Unstable - will, packages are again newer than testing, but might be slightly unstable. In some instances though, you’ll see versions of packages in here that are an improvement on testing. Why? Say package ‘a’ in testing has some security issues. A new version will enter unstable that has fixes for the security issues. If it’s stable enough across all arches and doesn’t interfere/break other packages for 3 weeks it’ll generally get shifted into testing and replace the older testing package - the bonus is you get a more recent version of the package, and you get the security issue fixed. Unstable packages themselves don’t get security patches per se. You then have the experimental branch aka scud. Real men, with real balls try stuff from here (and generally break their systems and have to downgrade to unstable/testing to fix it). You can run mixed branches, with a technique called pinning. So you can draw some packages from stable, some from testing, some from unstable and even some from experimental! It’s always a good idea to install a package called apt-listbugs - it will search for listed bugs for whatever package you are downloading and show you them (if any are found).
I myself use Libranet GNU/Linux, a Debian derivative. Current version is Libranet 3, it’s semi pricey, but well worth it in my honest opinion. Has an excellent graphical installer, large number of packages, excellent support and the brilliant adminmenu tool for doing a variety of tasks with your shiny Libranet system. You really should put Libranet in with your Linspire, Xandros & Lycoris group
Dave
June 19th, 2005 at 3:33 am
Please spell Conectiva right, remove the extra link to www.air-port.com and correct the link to SLAX when you talk about GNOME-oriented Slackware (you wanted to mention Dropline, didn’t you?). Oh, and Red Hat has a space in between.
This is not nitpicking, many people will read this as their first introduction to Linux and you have to provide them with correct information.
June 19th, 2005 at 3:41 am
Slack was my first distro! But these days i use Debian on desktop because of apt-get and FreeBSD on server!
June 19th, 2005 at 3:48 am
Thank you for a nice and intresting review, It was intrestin to read about history and background of different distro’s.
I started last autumn windowsToLinuz migration project to my home computers. It took few linux installations to find distro I liked. Finally I end up with Fedora and Ubuntu. I am running Fedora on stationary and Ubuntu on laptop. I think Ubuntu will eventually take over both computer because it seems to be more stable and I really like apt-get.
June 19th, 2005 at 3:54 am
Nice article - just wanted to point out that SuSE has as much commercial support as Red Hat does.
With regards to community packages it has been my experience that most have RPM packages for SuSE (for example mplayer etc.).
This will hopefully be a moot point when autopackage takes off though
June 19th, 2005 at 3:58 am
\o\ Go Ubuntu Go! \o/ /o/
June 19th, 2005 at 4:13 am
Ubuntu will rule the world
Ubuntu was the first distro that i felt so safe with, and removed my “crashindows XP” and all my ntfs partition.. now i m 100% ubuntu and very happy!
Uuntu is 100% stable here.. i ve reached 15 days uptime in a desktop machine.. using it day by day
June 19th, 2005 at 4:17 am
Ubuntu will rule the world
Ubuntu was the first distro that i felt so safe with, and removed my “crashindows XP” and all my ntfs partition.. now i m 100% ubuntu and very happy!
Uuntu is 100% stable here.. i ve reached 15 days uptime in a desktop machine.. using it day by day
June 19th, 2005 at 4:23 am
[…] re’s yet another guide to Linux distributions out. TipMonkies has one of the better Linux overviews I have seen; it’s easy to understand and will help you make your choice […]
June 19th, 2005 at 4:38 am
Just trying to give gentoo a break. Been using it now for a year after trying Red Hat and Suse. Im pretty dumb and lazy when it comes to computers and i love gentoo.
Point taken, I would not have done my first steps in gentoo, so you have to give it to Suse that they do their share to make the switch easier. But just like any other gateway drug, it should be dropped soon for a real distro. I mean come on … the guy up there who picks Suse over gentoo in speed. Don’t get me wrong, you probably CAN make Suse run more stable and faster than gentoo. But if you are smart enough to do that, you should be busy taking over the world or finding a cure for cancer or something.
Gentoo (and i assume same goes for apt get including distros) is just so much more comfortable. You need software? emerge packagename and you are done. Ok, might take a while, but hey, i rather spend an hour having some coffee or sex than sitting there up to my ellbows in Suse, Yast and the growing (yuk!) registry like structure of that distro.
Installing Suse from Scratch on an IBM T23 LAptop (1ghz, 1 GB RAM) took me a week of pain, searching, hacking, reading, freaking out, swearing. Installing Gentoo from scratch took about the same amount of time, but only like one tenth i was actually WITH the computer.
The Portage system (and again, same could go for apt get) is actually a bold advantage of the Linux concept over Microsoft. Need a software? Emerge, wait, done.
Or well, if youre speedfreak and insist in Suse: open Yast, open Yast again (it crashed), search your pathetic CD Bundles, find packman link, enter packman link, run Yast, find 23 dependencies, install 10 via Yast, install 10 manually, write 3 yourself for lack of prepackaged binaries with a red bow and with a little luck, mplayer might just run.
in the end: why are we bashing each other? shouldn’t we all be making fun of those windows losers? peace, OS friends.
June 19th, 2005 at 4:57 am
Great article. I think you compared the MAJOR distro’s very subjectively. There are a few comments about why certain less major distros weren’t included- to these people I would say that for a brand new linux user it is better to try something big and established and then go on to one of the others.
June 19th, 2005 at 5:21 am
Come on people, stop mixing Debian branches. Is it really so hard to read ?
June 19th, 2005 at 5:37 am
Nice write up.
http://www.networking-forum.com
June 19th, 2005 at 5:48 am
SuSE was never based on Red Hat actually, it just happens to use the RPM system. It was originally based on Slackware, and even long after this wasn’t the case, they still used the Slackware series system to structure the directories on the install media. (Also, if you check the package information on official SuSE packages, you’ll see the series mentioned.)
June 19th, 2005 at 6:00 am
SuSE was based on Slackware, not Red Hat:
http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-linux-e/1998-Jan/0360.html
June 19th, 2005 at 6:09 am
Another to add to the collection http://www.yoper.com/
June 19th, 2005 at 6:17 am
Would you *please* learn to spell “its” without an apostrophe? PLEASE?
Farb
June 19th, 2005 at 6:27 am
If you remember Yggdrasil ,you have been a linuxer as long as I have
June 19th, 2005 at 6:34 am
You forgat to mention that debian no longer has advantage of apt-get packaging system. Both Fedora and SuSE have huge apt repositories and installing apt-get is couple of clicks away.
If that is why you would run debian for, then you are making a big mistake because it has no advantages anymore.
June 19th, 2005 at 6:54 am
Maybe I don’t get what’s so great about portage. So… Debian has apt-get, the RPM distros have apt-rpm/yum, and Slackware has slapt-get/swaret. I mean, Gentoo users are all, “Need software? emerge , wait, play.” Well, do you know that’s the same for any other distro? Do you know that’s the exact same thing BSD and Debian kids used to say when this was new?
Maybe I’m just a bitter Slackware user, but I’m tired of everyone talking about how great Gentoo is without having any reason for it… other than vague Linux abstractions like, “it’s FLEXIBLE”, “it’s EDUCATIONAL”, “it’s FAST”. None of which are really true, Slackware is more flexible on its supported architectures, and Debian/the BSDs all support more architectures than Gentoo does, LFS and Slackware are far more educational, and fast only applies if you discount all that time you spent compiling software (and if you use that little command-line switch for binaries, doesn’t that kill the whole “from-source… compiled JUST FOR YOUR ARCHITECTURE… SPEEEEED!!!!” thing?).
There’s a lot of technologically impressive things about Gentoo, like its supported architectures, the fact that emerge is written in Python (I love me some Python), etc. I’m just sick of the fanboys, they sound like Gentoo pimps, and the way they whore the distro just cheapens it for me.
June 19th, 2005 at 6:57 am
Thanks everyone for all your kind (and some unkind comments) both here and on Slashdot. We’re glad you all appreciated the article. We do plan on doing some more, and understand perfectly that we can’t please everyone when it comes to something like this.
June 19th, 2005 at 7:02 am
There is less easy to find and install software available, although I have found it better than SUSE.
Um, Mandriva has by far the most software packages available than any other distro. This has been the case for quite awhile.
As well as having the most advanced, and easiest package installer today. Ever heard of EASY urpmi(?)
June 19th, 2005 at 7:19 am
No mention of White Box Enterprise Linux.
RHEL3 without the Red Hat. 
Overall, a good article.
June 19th, 2005 at 7:20 am
Not such a great article!
I’m a knowledgeable windows user. I’ve worked a lot with SUN and AT&T Unixes as well. This article tells me what the distros ARE, but gives me no sense of what I should try first. Please add a decision tree, or a table of pros and cons to this article!
June 19th, 2005 at 7:29 am
Xandros 3 - GUI-managed home folder encryption, VPN, Wifi, extensive Windows domain support, user-switching, Firefox configured with plugins, and CD ripping / DVD burning integrated into Xandros File Manager, synchronized with Debian Sarge.
If you want to hack around in /etc, its easy. Just do not expect the relevant config files to be all the familiar ones (pay particular attention to /etc/devices).
The author made a mistake: The fully-functional Xandros Community Edition is free-as-in-beer (gratis).
June 19th, 2005 at 8:03 am
to the “author”: please learn to write before you publish anything more on the web. here’s a tip to get you started: learn the difference between possessive and plural.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:05 am
Interesting write-up of major versions, if a bit thin in spots. SuSE orginally was a German-distributed Slackware, and Lycoris arose from Caldera Open Desktop, not Debian, though Lycoris is now moot after acquisition of resources by Mandriva.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:18 am
“Yes, nice article, but I really wish people would stop putting apostrophes where they don’t belong. It makes it so hard to read. If you don’t know how to use them, don’t try to use them. “It’sâ€Â? is short for “it isâ€Â?. Not very hard to remember, but a lot of people seem not to have learnt this..”
Also seems a lot of people haven’t learned to spell learned.
Agreed about the apostrophes, too, but the complainer shouldn’t be casting stones when they can’t spell either.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:27 am
“learnt” is the correct past tense of “to learn” in british english, as used in the united kingdom, australia, and south africa.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:29 am
A very informative article. As others have touched on the grammatical aspects, please permit me to add the following. You may never have something “for free”. You may have it “free” as in at no charge. The other major mistake is “off of” The word “of” in this case is always redundant. It is expected that mistakes such as these will be made by a lot of people writing comments to your article. People that did not have a good education or perhaps were not paying attention. English is a terrible language to learn especially grammatically. I am far from perfect myself. It would be nice though to see a more correct treatment from professional people and organizations.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:30 am
Gentoo The Best !
June 19th, 2005 at 8:31 am
If you guys wish to write up an article on your favorite distro, feel free to do so (as unbiased as possible) and we’ll post it on the site.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:51 am
what about Mungkie linux
June 19th, 2005 at 9:09 am
Thanks for the article.
I am a complete noob, and even after this informative article, I still don’t know which distro to start with. I guess it’s like having children. You can’t really prepare- you just deal with it when it happens and learn as you go.
To be careful, I will install it on a separate machine and not worry if it works or not.
Maybe start w/ Debian because it is easy to install packages, something that can really get cofusing for a noob.
Distro installation is important, but happens only once, so if one can make it through that, it’s done.
For me support/documentation is what would allow me to migrate to Linux “smoothly”, and save me from returning to Windows, or pulling out my remaining hair.
BTW, I’d love to see basic terms defined for noobs. When installing Linux I was asked about mount points, and spent hours looking up mounting points. I found lots of mount point references, but not an explanation that it is simply Linux’s version of c: drive, or what acceptable values were for it.
June 19th, 2005 at 9:46 am
SUSE is really SuSE and signifies “System- und SoftwareEntwicklung” (german), system and software development. This is the name of the company.
June 19th, 2005 at 9:55 am
Slackware does not contain GNOME now but KDE, XFCE, black- and fluxbox, fvwm and windowmaker (10.1 and later).
June 19th, 2005 at 11:04 am
Thanks for the article. I remember when I first started using linux, I really could have used something like this, and so I think a lot of newbies will stick around rather than leave for a lack of comparative information.
On another note, You would be amazed at who is still using Gentoo (myself included). the “emerge” package management is the easiest out there, including the apt-get or synaptic.
Keep up the good work !
-Chase
June 19th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
About slackware: It is a bit more simple but less powerful to hack around the init scripts and change the real guts of the OS
Since the init scripts ARE simple it makes it very powerful to hack it. Try changing another distro’s init scripts and you have to jump though multiple files in different directories…some are just files full of functions, others will call other scripts to load other config files.
June 19th, 2005 at 12:32 pm
Good words…GEntOo powa!
June 19th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
[…] ’m learning a whole lot about how the operating system is put together. I ran across a good comparison of linux distributions on slashdot this morning. I’m curious […]
June 19th, 2005 at 1:38 pm
Missing, kanotix, but you never know, don’t think this is just another Live Linux Distro. But then once bitten it is almost as addictive as Ubuntu.
June 19th, 2005 at 2:00 pm
Since 1999 I’ve tried many of the distros mentioned above (some multiple times) and Mepis is by far superior to all of them, yet it was not even mentioned.
June 19th, 2005 at 2:33 pm
Great article. Maybe you should add a diagram with a collection of trees, where an edge means ‘is derived from’.
June 19th, 2005 at 2:59 pm
Great read guys thanks for that.
And for all those “negative nerds” who think only they have the answer.
Pull your head out of your penguin.
Read the intro and disclaimer.
June 19th, 2005 at 4:18 pm
its, existence, definitely.
June 19th, 2005 at 4:45 pm
You can also download F/OSS torrents, including tons of Linux distros at Open Bits.
June 19th, 2005 at 5:01 pm
Good Summary. I’m surprised CentOS wasn’t mentioned. It’s basically a free version of RedHat Enterprise.
June 19th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
Mandrqake with urpmi
Finding out about urpmi made the difference for me. I have gone from using my Windows box primarily, to using my Mandrake box as much as possible for whatever possible. I love the ability to resolve dependencies automatically for me.
June 19th, 2005 at 8:28 pm
PCLinuxOS was one of the best LiveCD distros that i have used. Also for the smoothest graphical interface in a liveCD would have to be given to the Mandrake LiveCD. However, PCLinuxOS is definately one of the best liveCD distros
June 19th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
U forgot PCLOS
PCLinuxOS is a very cool livecd distro that has a good repository and makes it really easy to make your own version of it.
June 19th, 2005 at 10:43 pm
I Love Gentoo!
June 20th, 2005 at 3:05 am
Sunday, June 19, 2005 11:32 PM
Mostly so I can find it later, but also if you happen to be a geek: the beginner’s guide to Linux distros. Very useful. Most interesting is the way Ubuntu (”Linux for human beings”) is apparently picking up converts quickly. I’ve always used…
June 20th, 2005 at 3:12 am
Ubuntu seems to be the system that is converting a lot of Windoze users to Linux. Whenever I see a comment by an Ubuntu user, I see something like “I dumped windoze and installed Ubuntu” kind of comment.
You have done a pretty good job of covering most distros but left out a few like Yoper, MEPIS.
-Anand
June 20th, 2005 at 3:15 am
I Love Gentoo too!
June 20th, 2005 at 6:51 am
Sorry if this is written in other comments already, but Gentoo’s learning curve isn’t steep because it’s a source based distro…
It only makes you take more time to install apps, of course if you want to go deep, you can go learn all sorts of thing about benefit on compiling your own applications.
It seems the learning curve is steep, because as with another principle of Gentoo, it’s mostly do it on your own. By default, it installs nothing. Not even a system logger. So it’s all up to you to install what daemon, server, app you want to put.
And while it looks complicated, I think one needs not much knowledge to get it installed, if you read the doc properly.
Just to make sure new comers not go away from it by your writing…
June 20th, 2005 at 8:24 am
I think this is a very clear mini-howto. this is a point of view of many distros and i think the some in lot of thems.
there are many distros (like whoppie, damnsmall, and others) with a special objetive.
i´d like this minidetail.
dac
June 20th, 2005 at 8:49 am
not bad. im more of a bsd guy myself, but a nice summary.
June 20th, 2005 at 8:57 am
Beginner’s guide to Linux distros
TipMonkies In a bit of a follow up to the recent media apps for GNU/Linux post, I wanted to give a quick rundown of some major distro’s. Even though a lot of people have a hardcore favorite, and swear everyone…
June 20th, 2005 at 10:46 am
slack rules =D
The Only
June 20th, 2005 at 11:17 am
Ubuntu DOES provide for a completely custom installation. (It IS very closely based on Debian, after all, so it’s really very much the same “under the hood.”) When you first boot from the installation CD, you’ll type an option at the boot prompt. I THINK you type “custom” — but use the function keys to recall the exact prompt. This will take you through the full Debian Installer prompts WITHOUT pre-selecting all the packages, so if you don’t choose anything you’ll have a stripped down text-only system. From there you can quickly add whatever packages you need. So if all you need is apache (web server) and dovecot (imap email server), just apt-get install them and you’re done, without any xwindows bloat. If you don’t know what you want already, go ahead and use the regular installation — it’s fine and easy to change.
At the moment Ubuntu provides many of the advantages of Debian PLUS an aggressive development strategy. It’s a good choice for many people new to linux who don’t want to pay for a commercial distro.
June 20th, 2005 at 1:02 pm
SuSE isn’t so expensive, 20$ at most!
Look at:
http://pctech101.com/
June 20th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
Ubuntu is a good distrobution hmm’kay. Great features, and while there is no graphical installer, it is very easy.
Personally, hmm’kay, I enjoy the Ubuntu distrobution because it allows you to choose the packages you want after installiation, without saying “I want the office package” and the installer loading 50 word processors on to your box.. hmm’kay.
Ubuntu us good, hmm’kay, keep it up.
June 20th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
UNBUNTU == GOOD!
Great support from forums and well documented for newbies and those who are used to Linux.
June 20th, 2005 at 2:42 pm
Linux distros, religious wars
As a perpetual demigeek and windoze hater, I think this survey of major Linux distros is helpful, but also epitomizes the problem with Linux for non-geek windoze users.
June 20th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
I just wish the linux community could work together and create a comparison chart for all the distros showing where the strengths and weaknesses are for each, allowing people to select which distro would work best for them.
June 20th, 2005 at 3:37 pm
I’d call this write-up a good first draft, and encourage further work along the lines of some of the suggestions.
Let me add a few remarks on a couple of distros I’ve been using for the past few years.
Libranet falls into somewhat the same category as Xandros, Knoppix, and Mepis. It’s a Debian derivative tuned for the non-expert desktop user. The latest version, 3.0, installs fast, with most of the esoterica handled automatically. It has the graphic glitz that people coming from the MS and Apple worlds seem to prefer. The standard desktop install includes nearly every application and utility the average user would want. It steers a rather careful course between learning time and flexibility; it’s neither hard to get started with nor dumbed down. Its user community is one of the most helpful around. On the downside, this has come at the cost of drastically narrowing the range of hardware it can install on. You need a fairly recent machine that can boot from a CD, with a fairly middle-of-the-road graphics board, and lots of disk space. Fortunately, this will be no problem for most of its intended users. Also, some of the setup automation that excuses users from routinely hacking the config files makes it very difficult to hack them to deal with situations the automation isn’t up to handling; some things that used to be easy now require a real ubergeek. In summary, Libranet is a good choice for desktop users with work to do and a need to get started quickly.
Debian 3.1’s installation process is a major improvement over previous releases. It’s now very straightforward for any seasoned Linux user to understand, and largely free of the quirks and cryptic screen messages that gave older Debian releases their fearsome reputation. It’s by the far the most versatile and flexible of any current distro I’m familiar with. It would be the first choice for installation on older hardware that demands a boot method other than CD, or requires a text-based user interface for installation and initial setup. Debian is a good candidate for servers, especially on old or low-end machines, or unusual hardware such as fixed-frequency monitors. I would highly recommend using the Debian-Installer and Debian Reference manuals to make the process easier; any of the standard books on Linux/Unix system administration would also be very helpful. I would also suggest gaining some experience with one of the more user-friendly Debian derivatives before tackling Debian itself.
Debian can also be used to cross-install Gentoo on machines that can’t boot from the Gentoo installation CD. Gentoo has a manual explaining how to cross-install from another version of Linux.
June 20th, 2005 at 4:36 pm
Thanks for the write up.
Steve
http://www.networking-forum.com
June 20th, 2005 at 8:03 pm
For beginner education “Linux From Scratch” (www.linuxfromscratch.org is a VERY good resource/project
Yes Andrea, bitching about the spelling of a defunct
Distro is nitpicking
June 20th, 2005 at 10:29 pm
LOL…
Nice tales…
June 20th, 2005 at 11:21 pm
In my personal experience, I’d say, Mandriva (formerly Mandrake) by far is the best distribution that suits my need. For every GUI based utility there’s an ncurses bases CLI tool available and the best thing to say is my a decade old DELL PowerEdge runs Mandrake 10.1 awesomely well with a pathetic config of Pentium 133 CPU / 64 MB EDO RAM / 36 GB SCSI HDD. It’s been up for almost 165 days now without a single reboot hosting a few websites.
June 21st, 2005 at 2:51 am
like all other newbie how to’s this one is biased as hell. but what the hell, I finally found out why I find SuSe the next best distro: there’s no denying your roots.
If you really want to learn something, go slackware. Yes, it’ll make you study stuff, but you want to learn, right?
Self-compiling, self-optimizing distro? That’s crap, you can do that with (almost) any distro. You just want a bloody button to do it for you. You don’t need it. And you don’t learn shit either.
Debian? I suppose it can be acceptable, but only after you throw out all the crap, fix & update evedrything yourself, and never use apt no more.
RH? you’re not serious, right? Unless you have a very good reason for having a supported oracle install, stay away.
June 21st, 2005 at 4:47 am
So no linux destro i bad….
Every linux is to much best…cause i hate windows,unix,bsd…….
So use Redhat/Fedora, Debian, Mandrive, Slack or others…
June 21st, 2005 at 6:25 am
the print article link is broken
June 21st, 2005 at 6:41 am
I appreciate your article as I do presentations on
this subject to Computer user Groups in NYC area.
One correction however, is that Lycoris is not based on Debian but on Caldera.
A similar column every six months would be worthwhile.
June 21st, 2005 at 7:03 am
[…] ujeres también hacen pipàde pie
Breves Tips Linuxeros
GuÃÂa de Distribuciones Linuxeras para Principiantes Linux Laptop Howto Uno […]
June 21st, 2005 at 10:20 am
A very informative article. I have really wondered whether the existence of so many distros using various packaging methods as well as different philosophies they follow is’nt itself the strength of Linux. Because Monopolistic companies can’t put their finger on one particular company and attack it. And the “free as in beer” tag of linux and the recent advances in improving the usablity of linux makes it really tempting for even a lay person to switch over to it.
–
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com
June 21st, 2005 at 11:57 am
Just to update, the Print Article link has been fixed sitewide.
June 22nd, 2005 at 12:52 am
Every user of Linux wants to atract as many new users as possible, but when it comes to help a newbie all say “go and read t.f. manuals”. That is why I’ll stick with windows. I’ve tried to play with SuSe but I couldn’t install my adsl modem so I gave up in the end. I also tried Mandrake but I can’t see anything because I had to do something about my Riva TNT. Let’s face it with win, i just put a cd in while with Linux I got sweard by at least 15 people :))))
June 22nd, 2005 at 12:58 am
NEWBIE ALLERT !!!!!! Every user of Linux wants to atract as many new users as possible, but when it comes to help a newbie all say “go and read t.f. manuals”. That is why I’ll stick with windows. In the documentation (if there is )I’m informed that if something doesn’t work I should try and configure…change…which I don’t know anything about it’s like chinese to me…:( I’ve tried to play with SuSe but I couldn’t install my adsl modem so I gave up in the end. I also tried Mandrake but I can’t see anything because I had to do something about my Riva TNT (I didn’t know how). Let’s face it with win, i just put a cd in while with Linux I got sweard by at least 15 people :))))
In the end I supose I’ll become a windows fan.
June 22nd, 2005 at 3:16 am
As a follow up to your excellent guide, some may want to view my own Primer on Linux Filesystems and Partitioning. Maybe some will find it useful.
June 22nd, 2005 at 4:11 am
Great reveiw and I know that you could not possibly check out all the distros but I believe that Mepis deservse a passing mention under the Debian list. It is simply single CD install and also with very little effort can acess all the Debian repositories. I find it the Distro I keep coming back to. I also started out with linux at Redhat 5.2 or so and stayed with Redhat until they went to the Fedora model. I played with SuSE for awhile , but find Mepis meets most if not all my needs here, It found and configured a Samba link to my Windoze box without any further fustration so that all I had to do was go to the Windoze box and give it some shared files.
(If it wern’t for my wife Windoze box would not run windows) Anyway Mepis is a work in progress also like most Linux Distros and I find it to be a great little Distro able to do much of the day to day work that i need to do.
P.S. I use Ubuntu on my laptop - except for the fact I haven’t been easily able to install the internal winmodem, it worked right out of the box.
Happy computing,
Dave
June 22nd, 2005 at 10:21 am
[…] taking the open source operating system (OSOS) for a whirl, get yourself primed with this comprehensive review of the well-known Linux distributions from TipMonkies. […]
June 22nd, 2005 at 10:50 am
I hate to pick nits, but the acronym “RPM” stands for the “RPM Package Manager.” Please see http://www.rpm.org.
June 22nd, 2005 at 12:07 pm
Really good review. I like what you did and I thought I was like one of the only Ubuntu folks out there.
June 22nd, 2005 at 4:44 pm
I don’t know whether you will see this in the long list of comments, but as somebody already pointed out, Red Hat is spelled as Red Hat. Check www.redhat.com and you can see it for yourself. The only occurence is in their logo where it is all lowercase and one word.
June 23rd, 2005 at 5:45 am
Afraid to jump ino the Linux waters?
Then you need to check out the Beginner’s guide to Linux distros over at TipMonkeys! A great writeup covering most of the major distros - and a few of the not so major ones. Make sure you scroll down and…
June 23rd, 2005 at 9:44 am
Great article! This is the most comprehensive rundown of what’s available to GNU/Linux users that I’ve seen. Thanks!
June 23rd, 2005 at 5:18 pm
Whenever someone writes about Linux distros two things will happen: a best distro flame war will start and then windows bashing. Let’s be reasonable, vindoze XP is a decent desktop OS, suitable for some tasks, better than Linux at others and horrible for the rest. just because someone doesn’t know how to use it doesn’t mean it’s 100% bad.
enough about vindoze, I’ll tell you where my money goes with Linux distros: Gentoo.
why? I think it’s a good one to start with if you are good at Windows administration and if you are willing to spend some time learning basic Linux and poking your nose into config files. First of all it’s about choice: once finished with the bootstrap, you can choose whatever software you think will best fit you. You don’t like syslog, fine, install another logger; you need apache 1.3.* because of some backward compatibility, use that one instead of 2.*
You actually get to choose what you need and what you don’t. granted, you can bork gentoo as much as any other distro if running wild typing emerge.
Second, all I hear from some gentoo users it’s about speed, custom optimization, flags. That’s BS in my opinion, it’s not why I choose gentoo. It will only make a marginal difference and to me stability is more important than speed and latest packages. But it’s still good to know what kernel options to add/remove or what dependencies to exclude when compiling something.
The portage tree is comprehensive indeed, there are bugs however as with everything but the bugzilla is decent. And most of all the community is really great.
Oh and I think it’s better than Debian for home usage and learning, but not as mature and not the first choice for industry deployment.
Bottom line: each distro will fit a need somewhere. You don’t have to use gentoo, debian, slack, SuSE just because hardcore l33ts say so. Test them all if you have the time and curiosity and you’ll be able to tell the difference. And remember, it’s not about the OS itself, but what usefull things you can do with it.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:47 pm
“Mandriva- The distro formally known as Mandrake.” I think Mandrake is the former, not formal, name of Mandriva. And there are still some typos and grammar mistakes.
How about the kernel? I heard that Red Hat, for example, adds some stuff to the Linux kernel; so it is different from the kernel released by Linus and other distros. Is that true?
June 24th, 2005 at 12:33 am
Good point on the former part. I’ll fix it. And I’ll try to cook up some stuff about the kernels. Basically I think most of the major companies like Mandriva, RedHat, and SuSE (maybe Ubuntu) supply non-stock kernels. Really all of them take the source and compile it to thier liking, but I think you are right that Red Hat adds stuff.
June 24th, 2005 at 3:24 am
Awsome, i am a fan of fedora mainly because it was what i was taught on, but i got ubunto and my cdrom went out. i think this article is great because it helps show what distros are good for who. i hope linux some day becomes as popular as windows.
June 24th, 2005 at 12:57 pm
A very nice article for the newbie to GNU/Linux, explaining all the nuances of the larger distro’s functions, and also delving a bit into their off-shoots. I was also a distro whore for a long time, installing, reinstalling, and replacing any number of distros on my system. I went through Red Hat (6-9), Suse (7-9.3), Debian, Slackware, tried Fedora (2 and 3), but always come back to the one I feel simply offers the best quality for me, with admin tools that rival ANY distro, and that is Libranet. So, as Dave (above) mentioned, it’s Debian-based, easily administered, and complete with any window manager you could ever feel like working with. Having recently lost their founder, I am proud to say that he left a wonderful legacy to the GNU/Linux world.
Thanks to them for developing great distro and thanks to you for this imformative article.
-Fred
June 24th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
Is there a distro out there that I can install in family members computers. I find myself fixing or re-installing windows xp for them cuz their kids download all kinds of bad stuff(adware/virus…) or should I just cut their little fingers off!
Anyway, I’m starting to poke around with Linux, I might give some of the live cd’s a try on my laptop.
Is Linux the solution or will I only get myself into a bigger hole ny installing Linux on their systems, is Tiger OS X the answer?
Thanks
June 24th, 2005 at 10:52 pm
In answer to Ron’s question above - I’ve found Xandros is a great XP replacement - makes the transition very easy for users who only know Windows.
June 24th, 2005 at 11:09 pm
Ron, I think one of the best uses for linux is for people really not familiar with computers. Using a very user friendly distro (I think Paul is right with Xandros, it seems to be the best of the very Windows like distros) is often easier than Windows. I’m also a huge fan of OSX.
I kinda see three tiers of users;
-For people that are totally green on computers (young children, older people who never before used and are afraid of computers) It’s good to get them hooked on Linux from the start.
-If people are more accustomed to Windows already, and are used to installing software and doing minor system tinkering, Linux is overwhelming. The first time someone trys to run a game, they have to get the Linux drivers, and then install the game, and just hope they don’t end up in dependency hell. They are used to doing things a certain way, and expect certain results. I lean people like that towards OSX. It’s more like an open source OS than Windows, but all the major apps they are used to are available. If they see something new they want to try out, it’s more possible to find a way to run it.
-Then more advanced users I lean towards Linux.\
It’s sorta all or nothing with Linux. If you want to just browse the web, chat, check email, and write a report, then getting something like Xandros is easy, everything is there and set up. But if you start adding software and playing games, with Linux you really have to know what you are doing, and be willing to look for documenation and answers.
June 25th, 2005 at 12:45 pm
I love Slackware!!!
June 25th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
Good stuff, but how do I choose my distro? I’d like to see something like “for web browsing and email, choose one of these; multimedia production, this one; if you are running a web server, this is for you”, etc.
Oh, and a lot is two words, as are any more, and (please note, contributors) a while. Definitely has two “I”s but no “A”s, just like finitely and infinitely.
June 25th, 2005 at 10:01 pm
@veg: we will writing a how to choose a distro tutorial shortly…we have a good number of linux related articles we are currently working on.
June 26th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
now i`m really confused !!! i only read this article becoz i will start installing a linux distro tomorrow on my PC. but after reading the comments and article now i think i will stick to my good ol windows xp. Gosh!! i am tired even before installing linux.
June 27th, 2005 at 4:25 am
ÂÂ
mandriva IS NOT based on redhat/fedora! it is standalone and the company / community works on its own packages etc. (anybody please prove wrong my exact statement!)
ÂÂ
July 1st, 2005 at 2:51 am
[…] o me but tailored for the gnome desktop. Moreover, while reading slashdot I have read this article regarding some descriptions on the different linux distros out there.
[…]
July 5th, 2005 at 6:09 am
[…] nd Overview
Over at TipMonkies, there is an excellent article titled Beginner’s Guide to Linux Distros. This article is a good overview of many of the majo […]
July 6th, 2005 at 6:48 am
Good Article Jason, keep up the good work. I can’t count how many versions of Linux (Distros) I’ve tried since 1995, all I can say to the newbie is try them all till you find one that fits your needs. As for Windows, do I like it? Not really but as an IT Pro it makes me a paycheck As for Linux SuSE fits my needs quite well.
Vern
“Linux Forever�
July 6th, 2005 at 8:45 pm
Serrano, here is the proof that mandriva is based off of Red Hat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandriva_Linux
July 13th, 2005 at 11:21 am
coolegelinux is slas\ckware based, and it is the only thing I could get to run on an old 200mhz/64MB/6GB gateway. Its a little slow, and I can’t figure out how to install new software but oh well. Its a nice second machine. I am going to try Knoppix on my main p4 box (xp PRO sp2).
July 21st, 2005 at 3:43 am
We need a poll here on how many use SUSE, Gentoo et al.
I have not seen many mention Arch Linux!!!
One point, if you spend 4+ days installing Gentoo (no binary CD stuff) and every time 4+ hrs on new update comes out (e.g OOo 2)… how the hell do you spend time learning (watching lines go up the screen!!!)
The only way is to start learning is by dev for linux & testing on your system (that’s not busy on installing s/w).
So ignore all those who say installing Gentoo will teach you Linux… but do install 2 or more distro’s to get familiar with linux.
Also there are a lot of very advance MS Win users (by far out numbers linux users) out there that know a hell more than most Linux users about how a system/OS works… so using Linux will not make you a super OS user at all either. It’s all how you learn … not by installing an OS an waiting for the knowledge to some how sip/stream into you!!!
All IMHO…thanks.
July 21st, 2005 at 9:31 am
You have some good arguments Aerodyne, but I know that at least for me, it wasn’t until I started messing with Linux that I really began to learn a lot about how a system works. Maybe we do need to have a poll here at some point…
July 27th, 2005 at 1:06 pm
Ok, so there seems to be a lot of bitching about which distro is better than another distro etc etc etc…. Well, as an averagely experienced linux user/server admin that has used all the main distros, they all have their perks, and they all have their downfalls.
Debian, in my experience, is great for running on a server, which is what I use it for, but no so great if you want the latest version of a package. But Debian is a very stable distro, a good one to just boot up and leave, because it tends to behave itself.
Fedora is good for running on a desktop, but it is a test bed for red hat enterprise therefore some parts might be unstable, and there is that irritating lack of mp3 etc etc support. Overall though, it is fast and pretty reliable, also easy to install….a bit too easy I thought.
Gentoo is a distro that I used for t moths or so, but I dont now!!! Its great to customise it how you want but impractical to install on any system that you need to rely on 100%, as some packages are unstable, and there is an annoying tendency for them to update the same package very frequently, which means a sluggish machine while its compiling which isnt ideal. Also there is an issue with it that it tends to like to eat the RAM up then start chewing away at the swap file, which I dislike. Ok for newbies, but a bit sh*t for anyone who actually wants to learn anything about linux, as there isnt much to be learnt by editing a few config files and typing emerge –sync && emerge -Dau world occasionally and seeing half of your packages requiring updates!
Suse, to be quite honest, I think it is one of the better distros for ease of use and package management, another one good for newbies.
Mandrake, or whatever they are called now, also a good choice, that was what I started off with but then wanted a bit more of a challenge…yeah, I know, you can hardly call gentoo that but thats what its like when your a newbie….then you see the light, FreeBSD, Debian, Slackware etc!
In terms of speed, all the gentoo users out there who say it is faster….get real. Fedora is way faster on my Athlon 2200 than Gentoo ever was, a good tip with fedora though, is to disable all the unneeded startup services, that definitely makes it boot quicker.
Btw Aerodyne, what you have said about gentoo is true, its impossible to learn because it takes 12 hours to compile X and KDE, every couple of weeks when they update it! I’ve learnt more about linux in the last 3 months using fedora and debian than I did in the 6 before that using gentoo. Lets just face it, Gentoo is a fashion and like all fashions, it’ll go out of fashion, endless compilations p*ss the most patient person off after a while….ie me!
August 6th, 2005 at 4:55 am
Suggestions on future articles based upon what I didn’t get out of this one: I’m a long time, resentful M$ Windoze user (Vers 1 to XP) and desperately want to swap to Linux, but this doesn’t help massively in choosing a distro. What would help for end user newbies (I’m now much more interested in what I can do with my computer, rather than what *it* can do). Reading around about Linux throws up all sorts of annoying jargon that is just offputting. Could you maybe add pop-up text to make your articles more accessible.
Please might you produce a table of pros and cons, based upon your knowledge of distros? Categorizing by speed, ease of use, amount of ordinary-end-user-Windoze-stylee-software available, minimum hardware reqs, cost, etc. What it’s history of development is, is of less importance than getting people to convert to at least something suitable, isn’t it? Because there’s so much stupefying choice, I’m paralized into staying with Windoze 98! And it is nothing but a bloody great virus, torturing me whenever I use it. Please help us escape the pain.
August 6th, 2005 at 11:43 am
LOL Jackalaus, great post. That is an article we’ve been working on, but realize things take time, especially large article like what you mentioned. Expect it soon though.
October 31st, 2005 at 7:37 pm
What about Austrumi my dear? I found that a great distro with just 50 MB in size and providing good work for me.
December 5th, 2005 at 4:48 pm
Laptops anyone??
I enjoyed the article and the follow-on discussion. I only saw one mention of a laptop. I am looking for a distro that will support my Centrino Notebook. I have tried a number of Live CDs: Knoppix 3.4 to 3.9, Kanotix, SimplyMepis 3.3, Ubuntu 5.10. I have installed Knoppix, Kanotix, Fedora Core 1, and Simply Mepis. So far, I have not been able to use WLAN (except with Win2K and XP). I have tried to Apt-get the ITW2200 intel driver but it does not install for me. I have also downloaded the itw2200 tarball but don’t know how to use it.
I have burned the Universal i386 install disk from Gentoo and their Link to the Manual looks excellent, but I need something that “just works” until a get a round tuit. LOL
Thanks for any suggestion
January 12th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Well I dont know about laptops but gentoo (at least last time I tried to install it) is not easy at all to install for new people like myself. What I did since I have little experience with linux was hard drive install knoppix which worked out extremely well and was very easy. Many people dislike that idea though so I would just reccomend an easy to install distribution (well easier) like Debain. Frankly none of the Linux distributions that I know of that are free or open source are very easy to install thats one thing windows does do very well.
Thanks
Graxe
February 8th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
At the present time, PCLinuxOS .92 is without question the best
linux distro available and it is free. Consider the fact that it
is extremely easy to install and use, it contains all the software
you want on one cd, and everything just works,”right out of the box”.
Having looked at EVERY major and a lot of minor distros, i felt
like i won the lottery when i found PCLinuxOS .92 .
I recently built an AMD64 3000 venice computer and even though
PCLinuxOS .92 is a 32 bit operating system, it easily installed and
runs “like gangbusters”, absolutely AMAZING.
April 5th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
You barely mentioned the functiomality of Xandros.
True like Linspire, it is based on Debian, UNLIKE Linspire it does not nickel and dime customers to pay for a program that installs linux programs that are free for every other linux distro.
Also Xandros DOES have a free version of its product. Versions 2.5 and 3.02 OCE come to mind.
Xandros Networks is a neat package manager.
It easily installs Debian packages, as well as a LOT of rpm pacjages meant for Red Hat/Fedora as well. I know its possible to do this thru the command line using ALIEN, so its not much of a big deal…but it combines the ease of use with Linspire, without dumbing thw hole thing down by making you log in as root as you do in Linspire.
Also I have used MANY of the distros you mentioned, with the exception Gentoo, and I gotta say that Xandros’ forums are second to none in terms of friendliness and willingness to help newbies learn linux.
Thats why I will never migrate to another linux distro.
April 26th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
[…] Ahora encontré un artÃÂculo en que un tipo habla sobre las diferencias más especÃÂficas entre las distros para el usuario común en Linux. A pesar de que no nombra algunas como CentOS y Mepis, habla de las más importantes y creo que es un artÃÂculo bastante útil para los que están partiendo con Linux. […]
April 28th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
I’m just a new linux user and I’m glad I tried Ubuntu first which I kept running on my laptop. I tried Simply Mepis which is great but I didn’t like KDE. Good thing about it is that you can have a system running in 5 minutes or less.
With trouble configuring Mepis default desktop, I downloaded Ubuntu Dapper Flight 6 but it was bloated.
Glad I tried Arch Linux which I think I will be using for a long time.
I’d like to experience Slackware and Gentoo though. I’ll wait for vacation…
May 19th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
[…] TipMonkies ” Blog Archive ” Beginner’s guide to Linux distros […]
July 28th, 2006 at 2:10 am
I am browsing this page because Taolinux is dead. There is no further upgrade to it. Therefore, I am seeking a new replacement for my servers.
August 23rd, 2006 at 8:08 pm
[…] How important is open-source software, and a flexible hardware enviornment? Why not ask Linus Torvalds, or any of the dozens of Linux distros currently available? […]
August 31st, 2006 at 3:24 am
[…] This article also discusses some of the advantages/disadvantages of each distro.read more | digg story […]
September 3rd, 2006 at 8:34 am
One more notable omission is PCLinuxOS. It is an off shoot of Mandrake but now it has become one of the most popular and user friendly distro with a very friendly and helpful community.
Another good distro is Puppy Linux which is faster than any other distro and serves well the needs of the average home user.